This week’s International Association of Interviewers interview and interrogation training tip provided by Wicklander-Zulawski, has Wayne Hoover, CFI, discussing rollovers and how to obtain names of other individuals involved in dishonesty or integrity issues within an organization.
The first thing you want to do is go for the number. It’s much harder to give a name than it is to give a number. For example:
Interviewer: “Let me ask you, how many other employees do you know of that have taken money or merchandise from the organization?” Then make sure to ask the follow-up: “It wasn’t as many as the whole company, was it?”
Subject: “Oh, no!”
Interviewer: “Good, I didn’t think it was that many. Could it be as many as 50 percent?”
Subject: “Oh, no.”
Then use your behavioral peak of tension to work your way back to find the actual number. Once you have the number, you can then break it down by number to assign a name to each one of those numbers.
Look at the option of using a form listing all the employees. As a consultant, because you’re coming in and don’t know the employees, you can bring in a list of all the employees. You can take that list out and do a kind of map key, so a plus symbol means you’ve seen them stealing something, and a minus means you’ve seen them harassing. An asterisk means that you’ve heard they’ve been stealing. A zero means you’ve heard of policy violations. The key uses symbols and signals to say this is what each one of these means. It’s much easier for the subject to do that right next to their names rather than actually say it out loud. Then, once they’ve done that, you can use that sheet as follow-up to ask the questions you need to substantiate the information to prove that it’s legitimate.
One other option without that form of all the employees is to just go through the employees’ names and have them write their honesty level.
Interviewer: “So what would you give Brett?”
Subject: “Well, I’d rate him a ten.”
Start off with somebody you’d give a ten in honesty, so that way you have a benchmark. Then what you do is start going down the list.
Interviewer: “So what do you rate Chris?”
Subject: “I’d rate Chris a nine.”
You then go to your assumptive questions and say, “Well, what’s the most expensive item that you’ve ever seen Chris take?”
Subject: “Oh, no, I haven’t seen him take anything. He just violates policy a lot or doesn’t always tell the truth.”
Now you know nine means “not an honest person.”
Interviewer: “How about Fred?”
Subject: “Fred, I give a seven.”
Interviewer: “What’s the most expensive item you’ve seen Fred take?”
Subject: “No, no, Fred just… he messes around on his wife and he’s always flirting with people.”
Okay, so that means possible harassment, or someone who is not necessarily trustworthy with someone’s significant other. Then you find that number–perhaps five means that they’re taking merchandise, and maybe a six means they heard someone is taking merchandise. You rate those numbers and identify what each one means, and then gather the information again, to substantiate what each one means in regards to your organization. Stuff that’s outside your organization, you don’t necessarily have to worry about.
Another option is to ask the subject to think about one person they know of (again, assumptively) who has been taking money or merchandise from the organization. Give them a second to get that person in mind. Then ask, “Okay, what department do they work in?” Start going around and gathering information about that individual without going to the name. People will try to help you figure out who it is. If you guess who it is, they can, in their minds and out in public, say, “I never gave up your name. They said your name.” That way, they’re off the hook from being a narc, or rat, or whatever word they use.
These are a couple options you can hopefully use to deal with those rollovers. Do the right thing in your next interview: find out everything that is involved within your organization, from A to Z, and gather as much information as you can to give a good interview with substantiation.
Every loss prevention investigator should continuously strive to enhance their investigative interviewing skills as part of an ongoing commitment to best-in-class interviewing performance. This includes holding ourselves to an elite standard of interview and interrogation training that is ethical, moral and legal while demanding excellence in the pursuit of the truth. The International Association of Interviewers (IAI) and Wicklander-Zulawski (WZ) provide interview and interrogation training programs and additional guidance to investigators when dealing with dishonest employees, employee theft, sexual harassment, policy violations, building rapport, pre-employment interviewing, lying, denials and obtaining a statement.
By focusing on the latest information and research from experts in the field as well as academia, legal and psychological resources, these video tips provide interview and interrogation training techniques that can enhance the skill sets of professionals with backgrounds in law enforcement, loss prevention, security, asset protection, human resources, auditors or anyone looking to obtain the truth.
To learn more about interview and interrogation training and how you can further develop your professional skill sets, please visit www.w-z.com or www.certifiedinterviewer.com for additional information.